Acyl amino acids are commercially important compounds. Many have advantageous characteristics and are sold as surfactants, antibiotics, anti-insect agents and as a variety of other important agents.
Traditionally, acyl amino acids have been manufactured chemically. Such chemical manufacturing methods are hampered by a variety of shortcomings including the ease of obtaining and storing the starting materials, the necessity of using harsh and sometimes dangerous chemical reagents in the manufacturing process, the difficulty and efficiency of the synthesis itself, the fiscal and environmental cost of disposing of chemical by-products, etc. Thus, new compositions and methods for the efficient and cost-effective synthesis of acyl amino acids and manufacture on a commercial scale would be beneficial.
Recently, important technologies have been developed that permit production of acyl amino acids by engineered peptide synthetase polypeptides (See U.S. Pat. No. 7,981,685, issued Jul. 19, 2011 and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). Improvements and/or supplements to such technologies would be desirable and beneficial.